Twenty-four Ways

16th December 2010

Tis the season of good will and gifts. In this spirit, we welcome back the hugely advent-ageous 24 Ways for a sixth year of thoughtful and unmissable articles from an assortment of fine web practitioners. Erm, and myself.

24 Ways is a publication that asks each of us to think harder about what we do. Often the messages ask us to be more elegant, more thoughtful, and more precise. As an invited author, I’ve taken this opportunity to put down in words something that means a great deal to me as a designer. With a little help and a lot of exploration, I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time honing what I think is an important call to action for good and aspiring creative folk everywhere.

Improving our design vocabulary

I have distilled most of what has been squeezing my brain and informing my various talks and conversations over the last twelve months and beyond. The result is a short introduction to the philosophies of visual language, systems, and patterns that I think we as a community of smart web designers should really care about, and take forward collectively. If you’ve a few moments, please go forth and read The Articulate Web Designer of Tomorrow and make me a very happy chap.

Don’t be afraid to let me know what you think by commenting on the article. Your feedback means a lot to me.

The Manual

This year, 24 ways is also bringing us The 24 Ways Annual 2010. As described on the FSS site, “This year’s 24 ways annual blog is going to be turned into a printed annual that will be shipped in the new year. In partnership with 24 ways, Five Simple Steps is taking the 24 articles from high profile web professionals and making something tangible and beautiful to read off-line, during the rest of the year. All the proceeds from sales will be given to UNICEF and their global charitable projects with children.”

I’ve already ordered a couple of copies, and I suggest you do the same. If you don’t, then you are a heartless swine.